Practical Guide to Community Social Work Practice in the UK

Colin Turbett is a retired social worker and active author based in the West of Scotland, with an interest in radical practice. He is an active member of the Common Weal think tank Care Reform Group, and the trade union Unison Scotland’s Social Work Issues Group. He has supported various local authority initiatives promoting community-based practice, including that of Fife Council.Jane Pye is a Lecturer in Social Work at Lancaster University.

• Introduction1. A history of community social work in the UK2. Bringing community into mainstream social work3. Community social work for the present era4. Policy drivers and relevant legislation in the UK5. Scotland: Fife Council’s community social work team6. Northern Ireland: Clarendon Medical Practice’s multi-disciplinary team – from ‘Healthy Connections’ to ‘Strengthened Connections’7. Wales: examples of community orientation and community social work from Carmarthenshire and Torfaen8. Community social work with a marginalised minority ethnic group: Gypsy and Traveller communities in England9. Learning from contemporary experience: reflections on the examples from across the UK10. Climate change and community social work11. Community social work within social work education - Jane Pye12. Conclusion: the future of community orientation and community social work

“This text is timely and important. It is a significant contribution to reclaiming and reinstating a community focus and foundation within social work policy and practice. The challenge is to move community from the margins of pilots and projects and back into the mainstream of how social work develops and is delivered. Let’s go for it!” Ray Jones, Emeritus Professor of Social Work, Kingston University and St George’s, University of London